‘Defying Empire’ at the Haggerty Museum

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Image via Haggerty Museum of Art

Prints from 'Defying Empire' exhibition

A selection of prints featured in the 'Defying Empire' exhibition on view through Aug. 1, 2026 at the Haggerty Museum of Art

The Haggerty Museum of Art found a smart way to mark the 250th anniversary of the American Revolution. At a time when the meaning of that revolt has become contentious, the Haggerty pairs two related exhibitions on its second-floor galleries, “Defying Empire” and “After the Empire.” The latter is an eclectic collection of prints (1862-2017) with messages of political and social commentary.

“Defying Empire” takes us back to those revolutionary days through a modest collection of 18th century prints depicting battles and portraits and supplying context for the events. Included is the familiar agit-prop Boston Massacre, but most of “Defying Empire” will surprise even history buffs.

A pair of prints condemning Britain’s rival in North America, France, as a pestilential superstitious nation played to the Protestant prejudices of American colonists. New Englanders fought in Britain’s war to take Quebec, shown in a print by Irish artist John Brooks.

The text panels intelligently summarize the complexity of the situation that followed. Complete independence for the 13 coastline colonies was not universally embraced by the colonists, nor was Britain’s attempt to hold the colonies applauded by all Englishmen. In A View of the Great Town of Boston, the prosperous port is filled with merchant ships flying the Union Jack. Why change a good arrangement—unless taxation becomes an issue. A selection of American-made ceramics displays monarchial imagery.

Present through much of “Defying Empire” is a figure seldom recognized in American history. John Wilkes was a radical Member of Parliament who challenged the creep toward colonial authoritarianism that accompanied Britain’s quest for empire. Pro-Wilkes ceramics include a creamer with his likeness and a plate bearing his slogan: “As Always for Liberty.”

War is a nasty business, seen in several prints depicting the torture of tar and feather meted out by Patriots to Loyalists. There are several portraits of George Washington as a calmly austere transplant of the European Enlightenment. “Defying Empire” ends with an 1800 aquatint of Washington’s manor at Mount Vernon. The idyllic landscape excludes any sign of the president’s tobacco plantation operated by enslaved labor.

However, a text panel reminds us that Washington did not take the path of other New World liberators who, by making themselves dictators, retarded the development of democracy. Instead, Washington set the good example of retiring when his time was up. “Defying Empire” suggests that history is as messy and conflicted as the people who made events happen.

“Defying Empire” runs through August 1 at the Haggerty Museum of Art on the Marquette University campus.